


Seventeen Days of Peace

by EvieNyx



Series: Burning Plains [1]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Canon Divergence at Zuko Alone, Episode: s02e07 Zuko Alone, Gen, Ozai (Avatar) Being a Terrible Parent, Ozai (Avatar) is an Asshole, Post-Episode: s02e07 Zuko Alone, Sela (Avatar) is a Good Parent, What else is new, Zuko (Avatar)-centric, Zuko is an Awkward Turtleduck, and so sela aggressively adopts him as a result, as everyone always does, sela is already filling out adoption papers, while zuko is busy brother-adopting her son, zuko realizes abruptly that ozai is NOT a good father
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-08
Updated: 2020-09-08
Packaged: 2021-03-06 14:47:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,614
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26350633
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EvieNyx/pseuds/EvieNyx
Summary: Gansu and Sela’s footsteps faded away as Lee tugged on his sleeve. Zuko met the boy’s eyes as he asked, “When my dad goes... Will you stay?”Zuko thought about about how, for the first time in a long time, he truly had no one left, and nowhere to go.So, instead of moving on, he looked down at the young boy’s shining eyes, so much like the Avatar’s own when he asked that one question all those months ago, and said, “Yes.”
Relationships: Lee & Zuko (Avatar), Sela & Zuko (Avatar), Zuko/happiness - Relationship
Series: Burning Plains [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1914751
Comments: 70
Kudos: 640





	Seventeen Days of Peace

**Author's Note:**

> [Tumblr](https://evienyx.tumblr.com)
> 
> In this AU (the Burning Plains AU), Zuko decides he wants to stay with Lee and Sela while the father, Gansu, goes off to find their other son.
> 
> Things don't go as planned.
> 
> You can find more on my Tumblr, as well as send asks about it too. I really like this AU, and I'm excited to continue it, so I hope you enjoy!

Gansu and Sela’s footsteps faded away as Lee tugged on his sleeve. Zuko met the boy’s eyes as he asked, “When my dad goes... Will you stay?”

Zuko blinked. Thoughts roared through his head, images of his mother, and his sister, and his father. He thought of a wanted poster he’d seen when he and Uncle had taken a risk passing through a Fire Nation outpost, the words proclaiming he was wanted dead or alive. He thought of Azula, sent by his father to being him home as a _prisoner_. He thought of his mother, her loving words, and the day she disappeared because _his dad was going to kill him_. He thought of the Avatar, looking down at him with shining eyes, asking if they could have been friends. He thought of Uncle Iroh, out there somewhere, alone and yet, surely, still wishing the best for him.

Zuko thought about about how, for the first time in a long time, he truly had no one left, and nowhere to go.

So, instead of moving on, he looked down at the young boy’s shining eyes, so much like the Avatar’s own when he asked that question all those months ago, and said, “Yes.”

\- - -

“I’ll get you some food for the road,” Sela said the moment Zuko entered the house. She was wrapping food up already, for her husband, he guessed. “I assume you’ll be leaving around when Gansu does?”

“Uh, actually, I...” Zuko hesitated for a moment. Was he being presumptuous and just _assuming_ they’d still want him around? “I was wondering if I could... stay here, a while longer? Help... Help around the farm, or something?”

Sela’s hands stopped moving and she turned to look at him, her eyes widening a bit. “What?”

“If... If that’s fine?”

She stared at him for a moment, her hands slowly beginning to move again as she said, “We don’t have any extra money to pay you with. All I could give is a place to sleep and something to eat.”

“That’s fine,” Zuko said, his heart pounding in his chest. “I don’t have anywhere else to go.”

Sela’s eyes moved to the bedroom where Gansu was packing up his things, and then out the window where Lee was out in the sunflower field, whacking at a bug flying around his head. Her gaze moved back to Zuko and she cracked a smile, her face tired as she said, “We’d love to have you.”

\- - -

Gansu was gone, and Gow was coming down the path to the house. The pigs squealed at him as he and his men came toward them.

Zuko met Gow’s gaze as the men got closer and was reminded of another man who cared only for himself and his own glory, who fought for himself and himself alone until the Ocean Spirit dragged him into oblivion.

Zuko’s swords rested at his side, but he didn’t make to grab them, yet. 

“Seems we caught you on your way out, stranger,” Gow said. His smile was akin to that of Zhao when he knew he got the one-up on Zuko. 

Zuko’s lips felt dry as he shook his head. “Actually, I think I’m gonna stick around for a while.”

Gow’s smile fell into more of a sneer. “Shame. Thought you were smarter than that, stranger. Seems not.”

Zuko’s hand slowly moved up to rest on the hilt of his swords. “Why are you here?”

Gow glanced back at the door to the house, where Sela and Lee stood, watching. “The army’s in need of food. We’re going around to... _collect_ , from all the wonderful families in town. We know how much they all _support_ our troops and are eager to show their appreciation.” 

Sela was out of the house in a moment, carrying two bags of feed. Her eyes were even more tired than they had been when Gansu had set off. She hands the bags to Gow, who looks satisfied, though his eyes flash when they meet Zuko’s again. Zuko almost starts forward, but Sela places her hand on his shoulder and shakes her head, and instead Zuko stands there, watching, until the Gow and his men are long gone.

\- - -

It’s during dinner the first night after Gansu’s left that Sela asks him his name.

“If you’re going to be staying here, that might be a bit of valuable information,” she said as she spooned more rice into his bowl/

Zuko freezes for a moment. He glances up at Sela, and then at Lee.

“My... My name’s... Well, my name is Li.” They both stare for a moment and he quickly adds, “Li with an ‘i’.”

There’s a beat of silence, and then Sela snorts and Lee throws his hands in the air and rounds on his mother, exclaiming, “ _Why did you have to name me the same thing that everyone else is named?!?_ ”

Zuko doesn’t realize he’s smiling until after it’s already happening.

“So, what should we call you, then?” Sela asked.

Zuko thought of the mask sitting hidden deep in his bag and replied, “Uh, I’ve been called Blue, before.” At the questioning eyes, he shrugged and said, “It’s a long story.”

“All right, then,” Sela said, nodding. A soft smile graced her lips as she bowed her head in a formal greeting. “Nice to meet you, Li. May I call you Blue?”

Zuko returned the greeting. “Nice to meet you, too, Sela. You may.”

Her smile widened a bit more. She told him to eat, and he did.

\- - -

The soldiers come every day.

Every day, Zuko does his very best to stop them from taking more.

Sometimes, it’s not enough.

And yet, sometimes, it is.

(Every time Gow approaches and sees Zuko standing there, again, he seems a bit more on edge than the time before.)

\- - -

It was the eleventh night, when he’s laying in the barn, staring up at the ceiling and trying to go to sleep, when the realization hit him.

Father didn’t care about him.

Father didn’t love him,

Father didn’t even _want_ him.

Zuko had been banished over three years ago, and the Avatar hadn’t returned until late last autumn. _No one_ had known that the Avatar would come back. And yet that had been the only way Zuko would have been able to go home.

_Agni, if he had been captured for good at Avatar Roku’s temple on the solstice, he would be dead now._

_He was_ banished _._

“He didn’t want me,” Zuko murmured to himself. “Oh, Agni, Dad doesn’t want me.”

He sat there for a moment, and then he started sobbing.

Sela found him about an hour later, pressed against the back wall, trembling, tears still streaming down his face. _Agni, Dad didn’t want him_. He never had. He had never _loved_ Zuko. Burns dotting his body (and one marring his face) _proved_ it.

“Blue. Blue, it’s all right.”

Zuko shook his head. “It’s not, it’s not.” She didn’t get it, she didn’t _get it_. She didn’t understand, and she _couldn’t_ , because if she did, then that was it. Nowhere left for Zuko to go. End of story.

(He hadn’t been in one place for _this_ long since before he was banished.)

“Could you tell me what’s wrong?”

The words escaped him before he could stop them. “He doesn’t want me. He never did. He doesn’t love me, he doesn’t care, he doesn’t _want me_.”

“Who?”

“My father.”

She’s quiet for a moment, and Zuko’s not looking at her. He’s simply trying to _breathe_ and to _stop crying_ but he _can’t, he can’t, he can’t-_

“Why do you think he doesn’t want you?”

Zuko let out a wet laugh and shook his head. “He knows me. He doesn’t want me.” He paused. “You wouldn’t, either, if you knew.”

“Why?” 

He didn’t respond.

Sela stepped forward and knelt in front of him. “Blue, please, talk to me. How do you know that neither your father nor _I_ would want you?”

“I _know_ that _he_ doesn’t want me. He’s made that _pretty clear_.”

“What do you mean?”

Zuko felt a surge of emotion run through him as he looked up and met Sela’s sad, tired eyes. He yanked up the sleeve covering one of his arms. “I know he doesn’t want me, because he gave me _these_.” Zuko waved at the small burn scars visible across his skin, from training gone wrong, and, more, from _discipline from Father_. These ones were light, fading already. “And he gave me _this_.” He gestured at his _scar_ , and Sela’s face scrunched up, her eyebrows furrowing as she thought deeply.

“What... What do you mean he gave you those?”

He supposed that she was going to figure it out already anyway, so he reached a hand out, folded down all fingers but one, and then, with blood rushing past his ears and his heart pounding in his chest, lit a single finger on fire.

Her reaction was instantaneous. She jumped back from him like _she_ was the one who had been burned, her eyes wide and fiery, even after Zuko let the flame fall away. Her gaze moved from him to the house, as if she was wondering if she could get to her son faster than Zuko could burn down the farm.

“I told you,” he said. His voice must have been more exhausted than he thought, because something in her eyes softened just a bit. Still, she remained silent.

Zuko stood up, and Sela tensed, her shoulders rising just a bit. He stared at his feet for a moment before saying, “I’m going to go grab Lychee. I’ll be gone in five minutes, I promise.” There was a beat of silence, and then he added, because he felt obligated to, “ _I’m sorry_.”

Zuko took a few steps to grab his swords. Just as he was leaning down to grab the straps, he froze as two arms suddenly wrapped around him.

When he was released, he turned around, and Sela looked up at him and cupped his good cheek and asked, “Your father did that to you?”

Zuko’s throat felt tight, and he nodded rather than speaking.

Her eyes were so tired, and _sad_ , as she whispered brokenly, “ _They won’t even spare their own children..._ ”

Zuko didn’t leave that night. Instead, Sela dragged him inside and had him sleep in the recently emptied attic.

There was a small hole in the roof, and through it he could count the stars.

\- - -

The next day, Lee didn’t speak to him. Just glared.

Then, the morning after, he did.

The boy’s voice was tight as he said, “So. My mom said you’re a firebender.”

Zuko’s throat felt tight again and his mouth was dry and his heart was pounding as he nodded.

“She also said your dad was the one who burned your face.”

Zuko paused, and then nodded again.

Lee made an odd face. Then, he said, “The Fire Nation sucks.”

Zuko slowly shook his head. “Not all of it.”

A beat. “No. Not all of it.”

Lee sounded years older than he was, and it made Zuko hurt inside to think about another child forced to grow up too soon.

\- - -

It was the fourteenth morning when Sela visited him as he fed the pigs (just as Gansu had shown him, before the man had left).

“What’s your name?” She asked. 

He paused, and then said, “I told you. It’s Li, with an ‘i’.’”

“No, it’s not. I know it’s not.” She took a step forward. “Please,” she said, her voice tired. “Don’t lie.”

“...It’s Zuko.”

“...That’s the name of the prince.”

“...I know.”

She didn’t say anything else. He didn’t know if she thought _he_ was the prince, or if she thought he was simply named the same thing.

He didn’t deign to say anything more, and she didn’t deign to ask.

\- - -

It was the seventeenth day when everything went really wrong, _really fast_.

Zuko was in town with both Sela and Lee. The boy was slowly warming up to him again, which made Zuko happy in a way he couldn’t quite describe.

Zuko watched Lee play with two other children while Sela traded some of the farm’s grain from the last harvest for a variety of medicinal herbs. Zuko was tasked with selling the sunflowers they had picked to the merchant that came by every few weeks. The flowers would be made into dye, and Lee was excited about the extra coin they would have. Sela had promised him a nice dinner.

“Looks like a storm’s coming in,” said a woman to her husband. “We need to make sure to bring the cows in before it hits.”

The merchant handed Zuko the coin for the flowers. Zuko pocketed the money before turning and scanning the sky. Sure enough, dark clouds gathered to the west. 

“Gonna be a big one,” said an older man across the square. “Weird to see something that big outside of monsoon season. Spirits, it’s weird to see something that big _during_ monsoon season this close to the desert.”

Zuko furrowed his eyebrows. The way the clouds rolled, the color, it all seemed... _wrong_. He moved toward an alley between two buildings and passed out of the square. Zuko’s eyes trailed the clouds. Why did it feel like he _recognized_ the way the clouds looked?

It hit him like a sack of bricks.

It was because he _did_ recognize the way the clouds looked.

Because those weren’t _clouds_.

That was a blanket of _smog_.

Zuko didn’t know why the Fire Nation was moving _that many machines_ into the Earth Kingdom right now, but he didn’t have the time to wonder. He guessed that they were aiming to capture another large piece of land in one swoop, and, based on how close that ‘storm’ was, he guessed that this village would be in the blast zone.

Zuko ran back into the town square and, without even thinking much, yelled, “That’s not a storm! It’s smog. The Fire Nation is on its way!”

Silence. Gow and his men moved forward.

“Stirring up a panic is not a good look on you, stranger,” Gow said, even though Zuko had been here for three weeks now.

Gow took a step. Then, a fireball shot out from nowhere and struck him in the face. Another hit him in the chest. Gow flew back with a pained cry, and didn’t get back up.

Someone screamed, and then _panic_.

It was hot, and there was fire, and suddenly Zuko had scooped Lee into his arms and had Sela’s hand in his and was _running_.

Zuko’s bag was packed already when they made it back to the farm. Sela told her son to grab clothes and food and stuff it in a bag and then get to the barn and untie the one remaining family ostrich horse. Zuko grabbed up his bag, stuffed feed into the remaining space, secured his sword, and went to grab Lychee from the barn.

“Where are we going?” Lee asked five minutes later when Zuko was helping him onto the mount, Sela securing the boy in front of her.

Zuko hopped onto Lychee and the horses started moving as the pigs started squealing, as if someone was coming.

A plume of smoke rose behind them as Sela handed a map to her son to hold. She glanced down at it, then at Zuko, and then said, “We’re going to Ba Sing Se.”

The sky was dark with smoke and Zuko rode away from the town he had entered as a single traveler after three weeks of labor.

Now, his muscles ached, and his heart pounded, and he wasn’t alone anymore.

**Author's Note:**

> Hey, you should comment.
> 
> That'd be nice.


End file.
